Winning hearts and minds

Winning hearts and minds is a concept occasionally expressed in the resolution of war, insurgency, and other conflicts, in which one side seeks to prevail not by the use of superior force, but by making emotional or intellectual appeals to sway supporters of the other side.

The use of the term "hearts and minds" to reference a method of bringing a subjugated population on side, was first used by Louis Hubert Gonzalve Lyautey (a French general and colonial administrator) as part of his strategy to counter the Black Flags rebellion along the Indochina-Chinese border in 1895.[1] The term has also been attributed to Gerald Templer's strategy during the Malayan Emergency.[2]

The efficacy of "hearts and minds" as a counterinsurgency strategy has been debated.[3]

History

British Empire

Notably, the term was used during the Malayan Emergency by the British who employed practices to keep the Malayans' trust and reduce a tendency to side with ethnic Chinese communists, in this case, by giving medical and food aid to the Malays and indigenous tribes.[4][5] A criticism at the time was that "[t]here is much talk of fighting for "the hearts and minds" of Malayans, but only blind obedience is demanded of them".[6]

Historian Caroline Elkins has challenged whether the British Empire consistently deployed a hearts and minds approach to counterinsurgency, highlighting systematic violence by the British, as well as a concerted effort to hide evidence of the brutality of British campaigns.[2]

Russia

According to an assessment by University of Michigan political scientist Yuri Zhukov, Russia has responded to insurgent movements and large-scale insurrections since the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917 with a counterinsurgency model diametrically opposed to the "hearts and minds" model. He concludes, "Despite serious setbacks in Afghanistan and the first Chechen War, Russia has one of the most successful track records of any modern counterinsurgent."[7]

United States

American use of the phrase is most likely based on a quote of John Adams, the American Revolutionary War patriot and second president of the United States, who wrote in a letter dated 13 February 1818: "The Revolution was effected before the War commenced. The Revolution was in the minds and hearts of the people; a change in the religious sentiments of their duties and obligations…. This radical change in the principles, opinions, sentiments, and affections of the people, was the real American Revolution".[8]

During the 1960s, the United States engaged in a "Hearts and Minds" campaign in Vietnam. The program was inspired by President Lyndon Baines Johnson. He used some version of the phrase "hearts and minds" a total of 28 times. In ten of these instances, Johnson inverted the words and used the phrase "minds and hearts." The first time he used the phrase in his presidency was on 16 January 1964, and the last time was 19 August 1968. In his usage he addressed very different audiences, including heads of state, congressmen, and the American people. Also, Johnson referred to the "hearts and minds" of disparate groups, including the above-mentioned audiences and even humanity as a whole. His use of the phrase is most commonly taken from the speech "Remarks at a Dinner Meeting of the Texas Electric Cooperatives, Inc." on 4 May 1965. On that evening he said, "So we must be ready to fight in Viet-Nam, but the ultimate victory will depend upon the hearts and the minds of the people who actually live out there. By helping to bring them hope and electricity you are also striking a very important blow for the cause of freedom throughout the world."

A similar "Hearts and Minds" campaign in Iraq was carried out during the 2003 invasion and occupation of Iraq.[9]

One way of looking at the concept is reflected in the phrase, "If you've got them by the balls, their hearts and minds will follow".[10][11]

References

Douglas Porch, "Bugeaud, Gallieni, Lyautey: The Development of French Colonial Warfare", in Makers of Modern Strategy: From Machiavelli to the Nuclear Age, ed Peter Paret (Princeton University Press, USA, 1986), 394
Elkins, Caroline (2022). Legacy of Violence: A History of the British Empire. Knopf Doubleday. ISBN 978-0-593-32008-2.
Hazelton, Jacqueline L. (2021). Bullets Not Ballots: Success in Counterinsurgency Warfare. Cornell University Press. ISBN 978-1-5017-5478-4. JSTOR 10.7591/j.ctv16zjztj.
Bartlett, Vernon (1955). "Report from Malaya". p. 109. One impressive result of this campaign has been the extent to which Malay women are now taking part in political and social affairs — something still very uncommon among a Moslem people. So much for official measures to encourage racial unity. But both General Templer and his successor, Sir Donald MacGillivray, have insisted time after time that Malayan patriotism cannot be imposed from without or from above; it must develop in the hearts and minds of the Malayans themselves.
Hembry, Boris (2011). Malayan Spymaster: Memoirs of a Rubber Planter, Bandit Fighter, and Spy. Singapore: Monsoon Books. p. 414. ISBN 978-981-08-5442-3. Although many believe the Americans to have coined the phrase [winning hearts and minds] in Vietnam .., I maintain that those words were first used simply as a throw-away remark by [Officer Administering Malaya] Del Tufoe (sic) while we were chatting informally prior to a Federal War Council meeting he chaired in November 1951 ... I repeated the phrase during the ensuing meeting{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
John Eber, Malaya's Freedom is Vital to Britain (1954), p. 14.
Zhukov, Yuri M. (2012). "Counterinsurgency in a non- democratic state: the Russian example". The Routledge Handbook of Insurgency and Counterinsurgency. Routledge. pp. 293–307. doi:10.4324/9780203132609-32. ISBN 978-0-203-13260-9.
Bernard Bailyn (1992). The Ideological Origins of the American Revolution. Harvard University Press. p. 160. ISBN 9780674443020. Retrieved 20 January 2013.
‘Hearts and minds’ key to US Iraq strategy, Andrew Koch
Moorcraft, Paul L.; McLaughlin, Peter (2010). The Rhodesian War: A Military History. Stackpole Books. pp. 66, 196. ISBN 978-0-8117-0725-1.
"If you've got them by the balls... - phrase meaning and origin". www.phrases.org.uk. 27 May 2007. Retrieved 2022-01-21.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)

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[1] Douglas Porch, "Bugeaud, Gallieni, Lyautey: The Development of French Colonial Warfare", in Makers of Modern Strategy: From Machiavelli to the Nuclear Age, ed Peter Paret (Princeton University Press, USA, 1986), 394

[:0-2] Elkins, Caroline (2022). Legacy of Violence: A History of the British Empire. Knopf Doubleday. ISBN 978-0-593-32008-2.

[3] Hazelton, Jacqueline L. (2021). Bullets Not Ballots: Success in Counterinsurgency Warfare. Cornell University Press. ISBN 978-1-5017-5478-4. JSTOR 10.7591/j.ctv16zjztj.

[4] Bartlett, Vernon (1955). "Report from Malaya". p. 109. One impressive result of this campaign has been the extent to which Malay women are now taking part in political and social affairs — something still very uncommon among a Moslem people. So much for official measures to encourage racial unity. But both General Templer and his successor, Sir Donald MacGillivray, have insisted time after time that Malayan patriotism cannot be imposed from without or from above; it must develop in the hearts and minds of the Malayans themselves.

[5] Hembry, Boris (2011). Malayan Spymaster: Memoirs of a Rubber Planter, Bandit Fighter, and Spy. Singapore: Monsoon Books. p. 414. ISBN 978-981-08-5442-3. Although many believe the Americans to have coined the phrase [winning hearts and minds] in Vietnam .., I maintain that those words were first used simply as a throw-away remark by [Officer Administering Malaya] Del Tufoe (sic) while we were chatting informally prior to a Federal War Council meeting he chaired in November 1951 ... I repeated the phrase during the ensuing meeting{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)

[6] John Eber, Malaya's Freedom is Vital to Britain (1954), p. 14.

[7] Zhukov, Yuri M. (2012). "Counterinsurgency in a non- democratic state: the Russian example". The Routledge Handbook of Insurgency and Counterinsurgency. Routledge. pp. 293–307. doi:10.4324/9780203132609-32. ISBN 978-0-203-13260-9.

[8] Bernard Bailyn (1992). The Ideological Origins of the American Revolution. Harvard University Press. p. 160. ISBN 9780674443020. Retrieved 20 January 2013.

[Janes-9] ‘Hearts and minds’ key to US Iraq strategy, Andrew Koch

[10] Moorcraft, Paul L.; McLaughlin, Peter (2010). The Rhodesian War: A Military History. Stackpole Books. pp. 66, 196. ISBN 978-0-8117-0725-1.

[11] "If you've got them by the balls... - phrase meaning and origin". www.phrases.org.uk. 27 May 2007. Retrieved 2022-01-21.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)